RPG Column

*note: the opinions expressed within this column are those of colin, and do not necessarily reflect those of rpgfan. Iím good enough, Iím smart enough, and gosh darn-it, people like me. coarse language is bound to be present; itís not like you donít hear it everyday, in elementary school, from your teachers.*

as we get closer and closer to march 4th (and for most of america, october 2000), the gaming public needs to understand that yet another generation of videogames have passed us by: 32-bit games have become as technically advanced as they ever will be. with sony being the sole proprietor of the [remaining] 32-bit generation (and obviously the current king of gaming), we must now look back on the past 5-6 years to judge what will go on to live in our minds as classics.

many will remember revolutionary games like metal gear solid, final fantasy 7, tomb raider, and gran turismo; games that forever changed the ways we viewed a genre. cult classics will include revolutionary titles, such as parrapa the rapper, xenogears, bust a move, and jet moto; gender-benders that will set the precedents for next-gen gaming, games like xtreem, beyond the beyond, and punky skunk will be forgotten forever. this is as it should be; of all the hundreds of snes games and thousands of nes games (iím using these systems due to their obvious dominating of their bit type), how many do you remember that struck you with such impact that you still play them today? a dozen? a couple dozen?

the fact remains that as technology advances, we must let go of our security blankets, grow up a little bit, and try something new; we can always go back to out old favorites, and by march 4th, yet another beloved system will, technically, be a thing of the past, which is somewhat sad in a way. pretty soon, you will never turn on your playstation ever again, due to playstation 2ís backwards compatibility with all playstation games.

i donít think i realized that i would never buy a new snes game the day I purchased final fantasy 3; the concept of absolution never occurred to me. now that iím old enough to realize whatís happening, iím missing playstation 1 already...